


Holiday Traditions

by bathtimefunduck



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, blended traditions, stole some stuff from sapphicscholar's fanfic of a life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-17 20:46:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13085052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bathtimefunduck/pseuds/bathtimefunduck
Summary: Maggie feels like she has a bad track record with Alex and holidays.  She wants to make Christmas perfect but doesn't know what to do.  Luckily, she pulls it off in the end.





	Holiday Traditions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avampireandhercupcake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avampireandhercupcake/gifts).



> Hope you like it!

Maggie shifted from one foot to the other, her hand clenched tightly around the top of the giant bag of potstickers. She’d skipped the pizza this time, not really wanting to parallel the night she got together with Alex.

The door flew open before she could knock. “Maggie! You’ve been standing out here forever!”

“Yeah,” Maggie made a face and shoved the bag at her future sister-in-law. “I need your help with something.”

“Anything,” Kara chirped. “Especially for potstickers!”

Maggie let herself be ushered into the apartment by Kara, who already had at least two potstickers shoved into her mouth. Kara settled Maggie onto a chair and headed for the fridge. She pulled out a beer for Maggie and popped the top one-handed, her other hand cradling three more potstickers.

“Wassuneed?”

Maggie smirked. She sipped at her beer while Kara chewed. “I… want to do something nice for Alex for the holidays. But we… don’t… exactly have the best track record with holidays.”

Kara winced. “Yeah, okay. That was partly my fault.”

“It’s whatever, really. We’re over it.” Maggie pursed her lips. “Valentine’s was like… 85% my fault. I thought maybe I could make it up to her this year, you know? We were only sort of together at Christmas last year, this is our first _real_ one. But I…”

Maggie sighed. She pushed her hand through her hair. “We had a good Thanksgiving, right?”

“We did,” Kara smiled.

“But Thanksgiving isn't really romantic. And Alex… She’s made all the first moves.” Maggie snorted. “My girl’s got ovaries.”

“Alex has always gone after what she wanted with everything she has,” said Kara. “I bet that’s something that you liked about her.”

“I loved it. Love it. But she deserves more than pizza and beer, you know? It’s my turn for the big romantic gesture on the first try.”

Kara slowed her potsticker consumption. She stared at Maggie in thoughtful silence for a few minutes before she shoved another into her mouth. “I ‘ave an idea.”

 

* * *

 

 

Step One: Decorations

According to Kara, the holidays had been huge before Jeremiah disappeared. Her first year on earth was a strange kind of Christmukkah, blending traditions from both sides of the family.

Alex’s favorite part had been the decorations.

Since joining the DEO, Alex didn’t really bother decorating her own apartment, but Maggie could do that for her.

Maggie decided the first step would be to swap out the lighter curtains for a heavier brocade, dark blue and silver. Kara gave her a great recommendation for a non-traditional menorah, using rainbow candles and empty wine bottles that reflected important events- a bottle of the same wine from their first fancy dinner, the first night Maggie stayed over, their makeup Valentine’s, their engagement, and some of the “just because” nights.

She and Kara disagreed on the Christmas tree. Kara insisted on a live tree, but Maggie didn’t want the hassle of bugs and pine needles. She compromised by spending entirely too much on a thick, expensive (and pre-lit) tree and pine-scented plugins. Kara flew to Midvale and borrowed a few of Alex’s favorite ornaments from Eliza, and Maggie bought a few more that represented their relationship.

The tree was set up in the corner, near enough to enjoy by the firelight, but less likely to be a fire hazard. Maggie spent an hour making sure the branches were properly fluffed and all the lights worked. The ornaments she left out for when Alex came home.

She kept it simple, not wanting to make it look like holidays with completely dissonant color schemes threw up in the apartment. Simple, but pretty. Maggie felt fairly confident that Alex would love it.

Step 2: The food

Maggie was less sure about the importance of the food, simply because Kara was so insistent on it. It was _Kara_ after all, and even Alex ranked only slightly above food on her priority list.

But along with the ornaments, Eliza had sent along her recipes for latkes and home-made jelly donuts, and even three of Grandma Christine’s family-only recipes for Alex’s favorite Christmas cookies ( _“Of course she did, you’re **family** ,” Kara had said_). Eliza, Maggie was willing to trust.

The fried foods could wait until Alex was home, but that didn’t mean Maggie couldn’t get a head start to get the place smelling more like the holidays. Gingerbread with extra ginger, and more importantly, _dark_ brown sugar and molasses that took three grocery stores to find, made in odd shapes because Kara insisted on helping and she refused to eat cookies with faces or heads. The third recipe would have to wait for closer to Christmas, but Maggie also managed a few batches of lemon sugar cookies and more impressively managed to keep Kara from eating all of them.

It turned out to be a _very_ good thing that Maggie had requested the whole day off.

The last batch of cookies left the oven just as Alex’s key scratched in the lock. The door opened, and Maggie practically tossed the cookie sheet on top of the stove and shut off the oven. She swallowed and prayed to a god she rarely believed in that this whole thing was a good idea.

Alex didn’t say a word.

Maggie turned and padded slowly to where Alex stood frozen in the doorway. “Babe?”

Alex sniffled.

“Babe, I can… I’m sorry, I just wanted to do something nice. I can get rid of it, it’ll only take a-”

“No.”

Maggie wrung her hands. “No?”

Alex’s smile wobbled a bit, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. She shook her head and stepped forward, kicking the door shut behind her. Her arms wrapped around Maggie so tightly she could barely breathe.

“I love you,” Alex whispered almost reverently.

“Kara helped.”

Alex pulled away with a grin. “Yeah, the lemon cookies were her favorite.”

Maggie’s eyes widened, “ _That little punk_.”

Alex snickered. “They’re good, but gingerbread’s my favorite.”

“Well, those are already cooled. And I have everything to make latkes and jelly donuts later.” Maggie slipped out of Alex’s arms and tugged her towards the tree, where small boxes of decorations old and new were strewn about. “But first I thought you’d like to help me finish up the tree.”

Alex’s smile could have powered the apartment, and it was everything Maggie could have hoped for.

She told little stories about the holidays, of her and her parents, and later Kara, while they hung the ornaments unironically by the fireside.

Maggie listened intently, memories of her own childhood Christmases only a passing ache.

Alex’s face when she saw Maggie’s rainbow menorah was priceless. The little giggle she let escape as she fingered the rainbow candles and traced the labels of the wine bottles only made Maggie smile harder.

The moan at her first taste of gingerbread.

Maggie had plenty of painful memories of family holidays spent alone. Alex had plenty of memories of holidays spent avoiding her family and the pain of losing her father.

But maybe now, they could set their own traditions and make their own holiday.

At the very least, Maggie could now bribe Supergirl with lemon sugar cookies for dirt on teenage Alex.

 


End file.
